Northwest satisfies safety audit

3 August 2006

Northwest Airlines has announced that it has
successfully completed the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and has been entered into the IOSA Registry.“Safety is always Northwest’s number one priority. By achieving IOSA
registration we have
demonstrated compliance to this exacting standard and completed the audit well
in advance of the 2008 IATA mandate,” said Ken Hylander, vice president -
safety and engineering and chief
safety officer at Northwest.

The IATA IOSA audit is designed to improve airline operational
safety around the globe while also reducing operating costs for redundant
safety audits.
IOSA is the first comprehensive worldwide
aviation standard to include all eight major aspects of an airline’s ability to
provide a safe operation: Flight Operations, Operational Control and Flight
Dispatch, Aircraft Engineering and Maintenance, Cabin Operations, Aircraft
Ground Handling, Cargo Operations, Operational Security and Corporate
Organization. These eight sections
comprise more than 700 individual standards and recommended practices that an
airline is audited against. In order to
achieve IOSA registration, the airline must demonstrate compliance to all of the
IOSA standards.
IOSA standards are based on International Civil Aviation
Organisation (ICAO) standards and industry best practices.
In addition to the IOSA registration, Northwest successfully
completed the Department of Defense Commercial Air Carrier Quality and Safety
Survey. This U.S. government run audit
is another highly regarded independent assessment of airline safety.